This year’s Computex Taipei would be the biggest since the outbreak of COVID-19, featuring around 1,500 exhibitors and attended by several luminaries of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, including Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), Advanced Micro Devices Inc CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) and Intel Corp CEO Pat Gelsinger.
Others scheduled to appear and give keynote speeches at the annual show, which opens on June 4, are Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon and Super Micro Computer Inc CEO Charles Liang (梁見後).
There are many reasons for the show’s popularity, including its compelling theme — “Connecting AI” — and the rise of AI products, said Paul Peng (彭?浪), chairman of the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北電腦公會), co-organizer of Computex.
Photo: CNA
New opportunities related to the emergence of AI PCs ensure that CEOs are showing up, “especially with the growth of the IT industry in the first half of 2024 [being] a bit lackluster,” said Peng, who is also the chairman of leading display panel manufacturer AUO Corp (友達).
Geopolitics might also be playing a role.
“Since the onset of the pandemic and the US-China trade war, fewer people from the West have entered China,” Peng said in an interview.
However, because executives still want to know more about the region, “Taiwan has become the optimal place for them to obtain the information,” he said.
Peng added that there could also be a “competition” among them, with some fearing that if other “heavyweights” are attending, “then I have to go, too, to show my weight.”
The significance of this year’s Computex goes well beyond its scale and glitz, he said.
Its theme, “Connecting AI,” shows how far Taiwan’s computer industry has come, as AI computing, advanced connectivity and immersive reality, to name a few, are to be featured at this year’s expo.
“Taiwan’s ICT supply chain [for AI development] is highly comprehensive, and AI applications are now emphasized with promoted field trials,” Peng said when asked how AI would further benefit Taiwan’s tech industry.
One AI application is the smart city, he said, adding that more than 100 city heads or representatives attended the Smart City Summit and Expo held in Taipei last month.
The event was also organized by the TCA and had record attendance.
“They came in anticipation of cooperating with Taiwanese companies to have those companies’ applications and solutions exported to their cities, so I believe Taiwan has a good chance to make inroads into the AI sector,” Peng said.
The trade show also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the TCA.
Peng said that becoming the chairman of the computer association as a panel maker in 2019 was another indicator of the evolution of Taiwan’s tech sector.
In the past, “most TCA chairpersons were from system integration companies, such as early computer manufacturers MiTAC Holdings Corp (神達) and Acer Inc (宏碁), but AUO is a computer parts manufacturer,” he said.
That shows how Taiwan’s computer industry has transformed into an all-encompassing information and communications technology industry, “from software to hardware, from computer parts to total solutions and even cybersecurity,” all of which would be on display at Computex, he said.
AUO itself has moved in that direction, branching out from display panel making to providing total solutions for meeting space management for enterprises and educational interactive classroom solutions, Peng said.
With the TCA expanding into new fields, in part because the COVID-19 pandemic rendered offline exhibitions impossible, many alliances have since 2020 been set up to keep up with technological development and keep collaborations going, he added.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS